South Africa’s 5G boom is bypassing rural areas: Icasa

South Africa’s 5G population coverage surged from 46.6% to 58% in a single year, the biggest network coverage jump recorded in communications regulator Icasa’s latest State of the ICT Sector report — but rural areas remain drastically underserved, with some provinces offering next-generation connectivity to as few as 7% of their rural populations.

The national figures, drawn from questionnaire responses submitted by operators for the 12 months to September 2025, show 4G/LTE population coverage has now reached 99.5% of the population while 3G stands at 99.85%. Mobile broadband coverage hit 99.9%.

But 5G’s rapid national expansion masks deep provincial inequalities, particularly outside urban centres.

In rural areas, the Eastern Cape recorded just 7% 5G coverage — the lowest in the country — followed by the Northern Cape at 13%, KwaZulu-Natal at 15% and North West at 16%. Even Limpopo, one of the country’s most populous rural provinces, managed just 29%.

Gauteng led rural 5G coverage at 74%, followed by Mpumalanga at 63%. But seven of the nine provinces had rural 5G coverage below 35%.

All provinces achieved over 89% rural coverage for 3G and 4G/LTE, confirming that the connectivity gap is overwhelmingly a 5G problem — and by extension a speed and capacity problem rather than a basic access one.

Uneven roll-out

Even in urban areas, the roll-out is uneven. Gauteng leads urban 5G coverage at 89%, followed by the Western Cape at 83% and KwaZulu-Natal at 80%. But the Free State lags at just 38%, the Northern Cape at 41% and North West at 49%, per Icasa’s data.

The implication is that operators have concentrated 5G investment in the country’s three largest metropolitan regions while smaller urban centres — and almost all rural areas — remain on older network technologies.

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The 5G disparity compounds an existing digital divide in fixed connectivity. According to Statistics South Africa data cited in the report, 82.1% of households had internet access from any location in 2024, but only 17.4% had fixed internet access at home — up from 14.5% the year before. The Western Cape led fixed adoption at 44.9%, while Mpumalanga trailed at just 5.6%.

Geographical broadband coverage — a measure of the physical area covered rather than population — remained flat at 82.1%, suggesting limited new territory was being reached.

The connectivity gap extends to public facilities. Of the 21 878 government facilities that operators were required to connect under spectrum licensing obligations imposed after the March 2022 auction, only 4 377 (20%) had been connected by October 2025. The backlog includes 13 850 schools, 2 669 public health facilities, 702 traditional authorities and 280 libraries.

Icasa said the pace of roll-out appeared insufficient to meet national digital transformation goals and called for “stronger monitoring, enforcement and possibly additional investment” to accelerate connections.

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The report noted that smartphone entry prices have fallen to R399, making device access less of a barrier.  — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media